


The Bodyguard

by mgcbs



Category: Mamamoo, Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Attempt at Humor, Blood and Injury, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Light Angst, Mild Wheebyul and Hwabyul (more like crushes), Non-Graphic Violence, Panic Attacks, Past Relationship(s), Sasaeng Fan(s), Slow Burn, Stalking, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mgcbs/pseuds/mgcbs
Summary: Moonsun fanfic inspired by and (very) loosely based on the classic 1992 film, "The Bodyguard"Moonbyul!Bodyguard and Solar!IdolorFormer special forces officer is assigned as a bodyguard to one of South Korea's most popular Kpop stars and they butt heads over everything. But when threats turn to dangerous reality, will Solar trust her bodyguard Moonbyul to keep her safe?
Relationships: Ahn Hyejin | Hwasa/Jung Wheein, Bae Joohyun | Irene/Kang Seulgi, Kim Yongsun | Solar/Moon Byulyi | Moonbyul
Comments: 62
Kudos: 145





	1. Foreword

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic on AO3 - hopefully I am doing this right; having only discovered this platform embarrassingly recently  
> By complete chance, I happened to catch a rerun of "The Bodyguard" with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner on TV (and enjoyed the classic... despite being more of a "bang bang/boom" action film kind of guy lol) and then a rabid plot bunny bit me and refused to let go until this thing got plotted out  
> So please enjoy, please be kind and please leave comments/Kudos - would love to hear your thoughts!

**Foreword**

I am not a big fan of having to describe characters laboriously... so here are some pictures to get an idea of what 'era' the characters are drawn from

More will be added along the way because I wouldn't want to give away spoilers by accident. That would be a no-no. 

**Kim Yongsun/Solar**

****

**Moonbyul**

****

**Jung Wheein**

****

**Ahn Hyejin/Hwasa**

**Eric Nam**

**Bae Irene**

****

**Kang Seulgi**

**Son Wendy**


	2. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins...

Jung Wheein was petite but by no means was she a pushover.

Especially when it came to the solo artist and recently turned actress, Solar. And it was not just because she was Solar’s manager. No, it was because she was Solar’s best friend and she cared for the human being behind the Solar facade; she cared for Kim Yongsun.

So, she stormed through the corridors of Nam Entertainment in her kitten heels, politely but curtly nodding her head to any greetings thrown her way, and slammed open the door to the CEO’s office.

“Ah, Wheein-ah! Perfect timing!” The man in question was clearly not intimidated by her entrance. “Have you seen the reviews? The critics loved Solar in her first ever acting role and the movie itself is a blockbuster!”

The last word made even her fury pause, “Eric, I’m pretty sure no-one uses the term ‘blockbuster’ anymore…”

The CEO shrugged, his grin still plastered across his face, “Whatever, I don’t care. This movie is the highest grossing domestic film of the year!”

At this, Wheein’s anger almost fully dissipated as her eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Really?”

“Yes! Oh my god, we are going to get so many more movie offers for Solar… and offers mean cheques and movies mean big cheques… I can’t wait!”

And just like that, her anger came flooding back. Along with the reason she had come marching in in the first place. 

“That’s all great, Eric. As long as you _have_ a Solar by the end of this.”

His glee finally subsided a little and getting up from his seat, he closed the door of his office and leant against it. “What is that supposed to mean, Wheein?”

Wheein’s frustration bubbled up once again, “You know exactly what I mean! We’ve been getting threats and weird creepy gifts from that stupid stalker for months now and I had hoped you would finally take things seriously when we found that bomb in her dressing room… _a fucking bomb_ , Eric!”

“Keep your voice down!” Eric hissed as he quickly peeked through the glass panel of his office door to see if anyone outside had reacted and when it looked like they hadn’t, he replied, “It didn’t go off anyway, so it was probably a fake.”

“It looked pretty real to me.”

“So? You’re not an expert. And it failed to go off.”

“It doesn’t matter, Yongsun-unnie’s life is clearly in danger… _we all_ might be in danger. Don’t you see? Don’t you care?”

“Of course I care! How dare you assume I don’t!” Eric was suddenly towering over her but she grit her teeth and stood her ground.

“Then why do you keep shutting down the Police investigations?”

“Because it would bring the wrong sort of media attention on her, of course! These are just stupid threats from a silly sasaeng fan. And I’m not having her success being overshadowed by some investigation… Dispatch would have a field day!”

“They would have a bigger field day if something happens to her and they find out the CEO did nothing to keep her safe, even after the threats and even after a _bomb_.”

“It was fake!”

“They don't care. They love dragging labels and CEOs through the mud. Makes great headlines, doesn’t it?”

Eric huffed and crossed his arms but didn’t immediately respond, giving Wheein a glimmer of hope that her little plan would work. She raised an eyebrow at him challengingly and said, “So, I suggest we hire a bodyguard.”

His arms dropped back down to his sides, “Hell no.”

“Why?”

“They’re too expensive! Besides, I don’t want some sweaty fat guy following my darling Solar around! What if he takes advantage of her!”

“What if it was a woman?”

Eric scoffed but wisely bit his tongue when the diminutive woman before him glared and continued, “Ex-special forces, even had a stint with Special Services protecting the President. If she can’t protect your ‘ _darling_ ’ Solar, then I don’t think anyone can.”

Eric looked like he was about to throw a tantrum and so Wheein pulled out her trump card, “I have the right to reopen the Police investigations as a near victim of the bomb incident. And if you don’t authorise the hiring of the bodyguard, I will tell the Police and Solar everything.”

The CEO frowned and ran a frustrated hand through his hair and stomping over to his chair, slumped down in it. He seemed to be thinking deeply about the decision before finally sighing and looking up to meet Wheein’s expectant eyes, replied, “Fine. But on one condition.”

“Yes?”

“Solar is not to know anything about this.”

“Seriously, Eric, how long do you think we can keep this from her whilst keeping her safe?”

“I just… I just don’t want her to stress… you know how she gets… But she needs to focus on her career right now… this movie is going to open so many doors for her, I just don’t want anything to ruin it for her. We can always tell her if things are looking more serious.”

Wheein wasn’t sure it could get any more serious than a bomb but deflated at his genuine concern for once and nodded, promising to try and keep it from Solar against her better judgement. And as she walked out of the office and out of the company building, she thought that, for now, she was just glad that she had at least managed to get Eric to agree to a bodyguard - it was the most progress she had made since the threats started coming through a few months back from the stalker. She hoped it was just a random delusional sasaeng fan but she also hoped that this bodyguard would live up to their reputation and protect her best friend if something happened.

Wheein pushed open the heavy glass doors and took a deep breath of the cool Autumn evening air, before dialing a number in her recent contacts.

“Hello, Bae-daepyonim?” She chuckled shyly at the faux admonishment over the phone, “Ah, sorry, Irene-ssi… yes, the CEO has finally authorised our agreement. Well, when can she start? Oh, really? Yes, that’s perfect. Could you tell her to come to our company for eight AM tomorrow so that she can meet our staff and join the meeting with Solar? Thank you, Irene-ssi! You too… bye!”

Wheein hung up and pulled up a taxi hailing app but was interrupted by a message from Bae Irene, the CEO of RV Security Management. It was the contact details for a certain, “Moonbyul” and a simple message, “Solar’s Bodyguard”. 


	3. Hate at first sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isn't there a fine line between love and hate?

The next morning, Wheein found herself waiting for the bodyguard outside of the company building at 0750 feeling oddly nervous. She wasn’t sure what to expect from an ex-special forces officer but when she had her initial meeting with the CEO of RV Security Management (or RVSM for short: a small company but with a solid reputation) had reassured her that this bodyguard was her best and most highly sought after asset. Wheein had deliberately picked a smaller company but one with a good reputation for professionalism and utmost discretion because she knew that Nam Entertainment, despite their success through Solar, was still a small company and would not be able to afford anyone much bigger. She had liked the CEO Bae Irene almost immediately, seeing past her seemingly frosty exterior to the shy introvert dwelling within; because there was something about her that reminded her so much of Solar that it startled her for a few moments. The other thing that struck her was how the private security firm was being run by such a small, almost fragile looking woman but Wheein immediately slapped the thought out of her mind. She was never one to judge a book by its cover nor anyone based on gender and she did not want to start now. 

Wheein was startled out of her thoughts on being approached by a taller slim woman with long dark hair, who was dressed in a simple black suit, that she could only describe as handsome (not pretty or beautiful but _handsome_ ), and carrying a military backpack on one shoulder. Said woman hefted her backpack so that it sat higher over her shoulder and after a quick bow, stuck out her hand to her.

“I’m Moonbyul, the new bodyguard. You must be Manager Jung?”

Okay, so to top it all off, her voice was a husky low one that was somehow simultaneously soothing and alluring. 

And she must have been staring for a beat too long because the bodyguard tilted her head slightly in mild bemusement. 

“Ah! Yes, sorry!” Wheein squeaked and bowed twice before finally accepting the hand that was still being offered to her. The hand was larger than hers, warmer and stronger. “I am Solar’s manager, yes. Please just call me Wheein. Manager Jung makes me sound old… And you’re early! Well, not that that’s a bad thing since I’m early too… so I guess it doesn’t matter, really.”

Then she blushed as she realised that she had rambled then suddenly had no idea what to say next. She hadn’t known what to expect from the bodyguard but not this… and certainly not the small but surprisingly soft lopsided smile that slowly appeared as she kindly tried to rescue the conversation, “Well, if you lead the way, I would say we were both on time, Wheein-ssi.” 

Wheein was grateful to the bodyguard for not making her feel like a complete idiot and for giving her something to do. She walked them into the building and into the elevator before leading her into a small conference room. Small talk along the way quickly revealed that Moonbyul was a few years older than Wheein and when Moonbyul gave Wheein the permission to call her “unnie”, the latter insisted that “Byulyi-unnie” just called her “Wheein” without the “ssi”. 

After sitting down in the conference room, it was all business, with Wheein briefing the bodyguard about the threats, failed bomb attack and the few instances of creepy gifts being delivered to secret filming locations or Solar being followed home. Moonbyul then requested a few things like full access to the company building, staff records and Solar’s full schedule as well as being included in any discussions regarding changes to said schedule. When Moonbyul also asked for access to any ongoing investigations regarding stalker activity, Wheein had to quickly explain the lame excuse, “Ah yes, about that. Um, the CEO shut down all the Police investigations because it might bring the wrong sort of media attention to Solar…” She noticed a slightest twitch in a sculpted eyebrow but otherwise the bodyguard’s face did not reveal anything. “He thinks that these were all the actions of some delusional attention-seeking sasaeng fans and that it is a side effect of being a popular celebrity in this country.”

Moonbyul merely nodded once and scribbled something into a small black notepad she had been jotting down relevant information. Wheein chewed on her bottom lip before deciding to add, “And unnie, could I ask a favour?”

“Sure.”

“Please don’t talk about the stalker or anything related to them either with Solar-unnie or around her.”

The older girl blinked at this before replying with a question, “Is she that… affected by all of this?”

Wheein looked away. She hated lying. “S-Something like that.”

Before either of them could say anything else. Other members of staff began filtering into the room and Wheein busied herself with greeting them and introducing the new bodyguard. She was part amused and part relieved to note that she was not the only one who was having an odd reaction to the politely bowing (and _ridiculously good-looking_ ) ex-soldier. However, nervousness immediately bowled over any other feelings as a certain beautiful and currently blonde idol entered the room. Wheein’s teeth found her bottom lip again. 

_How would Solar react to her bodyguard?_

Kim Yongsun, better known as Solar, entered the meeting room feeling light on her feet. There had been glowing positive reviews from film critics regarding her first foray into acting as well as the movie itself and she was excited to be back at work following the short break she was allowed (after they had finished recording the mini-album and filming the MV for the movie OST). She was so happy that she hadn’t even questioned it when her best friend and manager had messaged her that one of the junior manager oppas would pick her up from her flat with Driver Lee instead. So happy in fact, that as she entered the conference room laughing with her make-up unnie, she almost missed the stranger standing in the middle of it.

A tall, dark and handsome stranger.

_‘Wait, what?’_

Okay, so Solar could accept that the stranger was taller than her, had jet black hair and seemed charismatic. 

But she hated her on sight.

The strong yet feminine jawline, dark intelligent eyes, quiet confidence… 

God, she was already annoying.

Who was she? And why were members of her entourage tripping over themselves at the sight of her running her hand through the dark locks after she bowed to them in greeting. She hadn’t even said a word as Wheein seemed to be doing most of the talking.

Maybe she had a stupid voice. 

Before Solar could demand who this was and before Wheein could turn to her and introduce her to said annoyance, Eric strolled in and everyone immediately found their seats and the meeting began. To her consternation, Wheein pulled this random person into the chair next to her instead of sending them out of the room. 

Seriously, who was she? 

As far as she could recall, Solar had not agreed to hire any new staff or interns and normally she would receive detailed emails about it months ahead of time. But just then, after she had automatically smiled brightly at everyone congratulating her at Eric’s announcement regarding her successful movie, her question was answered.

“Now, just before we move onto our amazing Solar’s upcoming promotional schedule, I would like to introduce her new bodyguard: Moonbyul-ssi.”

_‘My what? Bodyguard? BODYGUARD?! Since when? I never asked for a bodyguard and nobody asked me if I wanted one either!’_

“Moving on,” Eric droned on, barely giving this Moonbyul a chance to nod to the other occupants of the room. Meanwhile, Solar used her years of experience to keep her face neutral but her eyes zeroed in on Wheein’s and they had the following totally silent conversation.

‘ _Jung Wheein. What. The. Hell._ ’

Wheein’s eyes widened slightly, ‘ _I can explain!_ ’

Solar’s narrowed a fraction, ‘ _You better._ ’

Her manager gave her an almost imperceptible nod, ‘ _Of course._ ’

Satisfied, Solar tried to turn her attention back to the meeting but her eyes were snagged by a pair of sharp ones that seemed to be carefully studying her and her breath caught for a moment.

 _Just for a brief moment_.

Then she snapped her eyes away, her cheeks flushing as her anger flared.

_‘What the-? Who the hell does she think she is, looking at me like that?’_

A small part of Solar that wasn’t furious wondered what it was about this bodyguard that pissed her off so much. She knew she was wary of new people and took time to warm up to them but something about this woman just completely rubbed her up the wrong way.

The rest of the meeting was a foregone conclusion, as she nodded automatically to whatever was being said; willing the meeting to go by faster so that she could get some answers out of Wheein.

  
After what felt like an age, the meeting came to an end with one of the junior managers offering to sort out Moonbyul’s staff ID and the two quickly left. As everybody else began filtering out of the room, Solar hung back and tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the last member of staff except Wheein to leave before getting straight to the point, “What the hell is going on? Why do I suddenly need a bodyguard?”

Wheein gulped. _‘Oh boy, here we go…’_

“W-Well, you _are_ getting more and more popular…”

“I’ve never needed one.”

“Yes, but me and the junior managers… we aren’t trained to keep you safe… don’t you remember how scary it was when those weird fans followed you home all those times and we kept circling the block because we didn’t know what to do? A bodyguard would’ve been really helpful then.”

“It happened like twice, maybe three times! And after we called the Police, it didn’t happen again!”

 _‘No, but instead the stalker keeps sending threatening reminders that they could sell the location of your flat to the highest bidder online or pay you a night time visit…’_ Wheein grimly thought. She knew that there was no way the stalker knew exactly which building, which floor and which flat Solar lived on but it terrified her all the same. 

_How long before they did find out?_

Instead she replied, “Look, we just felt that it was time you got a bodyguard so that the staff could focus on their actual jobs.”

“Then why didn’t you just talk to me? You know I hate it when we suddenly make changes to our routine or our staff and I’m already stressing about starting promotions for the movie and the OST… we could have talked about it and made the appropriate changes. Instead you hired a babysitter!”

“Unnie, please… Byulyi-unnie is ex-special forces an-”

“I really don’t care, Wheein-ah.” Solar cut in sharply. “I don’t need some military grade guard dog invading my personal space.”

Wheein sighed. She hated fighting with Solar and she _hated_ lying to her but there was no way she was going to back down on this.

“Eric wanted it, okay? You know how he is when he sets his mind on something. We’ll try to make sure the bodyguard duties don’t interfere with your schedule too much. Just… just try to put up with it… for me… _please_?”

Solar really tried to argue but Wheein was using her “puppy-dog-eyes-superpower” to full effect and she relented, knowing that on some level, she was being just a little childish.

_Just a little._

“Fine. But keep your guard dog on a tight leash.”

Unbeknownst to the pair of them, the aforementioned guard dog had returned from picking up their new staff ID and swipe card to access the building and had caught the latter half of the conversation. Byul’s hand was still hovering over the door handle but she retracted her hand and slowly moved back until she was leaning against the wall, so that she could wait to retrieve her backpack and not look like she was eavesdropping. 

She was puzzled as to why the idol, who was seemingly so traumatised by the stalker that she couldn’t even talk about it, was so against having a bodyguard and wondered if this was what all celebrities were like. Since leaving the special forces and joining RVSM, Moonbyul had guarded high ranking government officials, extracted abductees from gangs or terrorists and protected defectors carrying sensitive information but had never been a bodyguard to a celebrity.

Albeit a pretty celebrity.

Okay, Byul could admit that Solar was very pretty... but she was also very silly.

A yeba*.

Who very clearly hated her on sight.

Oh, this job was going to be hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *[Short for Yeppeun Pabo = 예쁜바보 = pretty fool, nickname given by Moonbyul to Solar during on of their YongkongByulkong Vlives]
> 
> PS: did anyone see what I did there with RVSM? *wink wink nudge nudge* 
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are most welcomed!  
> Thank you for reading.


	4. Solar-gate

The bodyguard had been right. It was hell.

It wasn't the early starts, long hours of standing around and late nights. No, that she could handle fine after years in the military and in the private sector.

It was the client herself.

Every action was questioned, every protocol blatantly disregarded, every day included an argument with the idol, Miss Solar. 

The first few weeks of her new job had been absolute torture for the bodyguard.

Irene and Seulgi had insisted that Moonbyul needed to slow down and have a decently paid but less dangerous assignment once in a while.

Instead it was dangerous for her blood pressure.

Byul almost missed the bullets and explosions.

It had started almost immediately on her first official day on shift. As any decent security worth his/her salt would, Byul planted herself at the door of the dressing room and checked IDs and bags before allowing them in. Within less than an hour, she was dragged to one side and scolded by an exasperated Solar that she knew all of her staff, _thank you_ , so she was just wasting her time and could she please just _go away_. Byul had merely responded politely, “I’m just doing my job, Solar-ssi,” and ended up having to go through the entire Nam Entertainment staff database and memorise faces, names and backgrounds so that she wouldn’t have to check IDs for anyone moving in and out of Solar vicinity. 

She had had to do this many times before, so she just took it as an opportunity to keep up the skill. As for the bags, she ended up loitering until Solar was out of the dressing and go through them all to look for suspicious devices and packages - trying very hard not to look like a common thief herself.

Then a few days later, Byul had intercepted fans’ gifts and with Wheein’s blessing, had thrown out all food items and opened some of the larger packages, again to exclude suspicious items. However, she received another earful from Solar about wasting food, being inconsiderate of her fans’ feelings and invading her and her fans’ privacy. Byul had again meekly responded, “I’m just doing my job, Solar-ssi” and the next day, turned up with a military borescope* so that she could inspect the inside of packages without needing to open them and quietly asked Wheein to release a statement through the company that food gifts were not going to be accepted until further notice. Luckily (or unluckily), a male idol had recently made headlines for needing to be rushed to hospital after a sasaeng fan had sent him a drink spiked with superglue** and a lot of agencies had been releasing similar statements in fear of copycats. 

And then there was the time that Moonbyul had delayed Solar from leaving her dressing room immediately as there had been a sudden influx of fans outside and had narrowed the route to their cars. She wanted to go ahead to check the route before returning to escort the idol to her car but Solar had had a trying morning - the day was meant to have started with a simple interview and performance but there was a technical problem on set, leading to delays and more delays as they sat around, getting further and further behind schedule. To top it all off, the lunch that they had ordered had arrived at the other filming site where they would have been, had the filming gone as planned. So, Solar was cold, bored and hangry; and having a bodyguard, _she never asked for_ , further delaying her merely worsened her mood. Cutting Moonbyul off as she was explaining her plan to the staff by pushing past her and storming down the corridor, she barely spared her entourage a glance as they scrambled after her. Her bodyguard jogged past them all and catching up to Solar, protected her from the shoving and jostling from the crowd of enthusiastic fans that had packed out the lobby of the broadcasting centre. Once she had plopped herself down on her seat in one of the cars, she watched as Byul rushed back into the crowd to help extract her entourage one by one until they were all safely out in the moving vehicles. But before Byul could even catch her breath, Solar brazenly asked, “I didn’t stick to your stupid security protocol, Moonbyul-ssi, and did anything happen to me?” 

When the bodyguard wisely didn’t rise to the bait and reply, she ploughed on, “We were already behind schedule and none of us had a chance to eat or drink today. So, read the room, Moonbyul-ssi and realise that you were making us more late than necessary.”

Byul bowed her head and replied the only way she could, “I’m just doing my job, Solar-ssi.”

The next morning, when she was picked up from her flat, Solar was surprised to find that the bodyguard had not joined them and mentally rejoiced that perhaps she had finally given up and quit. Her hopes were dashed however, when they arrived at their first location of the day, Moonbyul was already there and opening the door for her and leading her to her dressing room. She did notice an unfamiliar set of motorcycle helmet and gloves in the corner of the room next to a now familiar military backpack and Wheein asking about it. 

“It’s how I got here.” A husky voice replied. “I borrowed one of our company motorbikes so that I can skip traffic and get to places ahead of you guys, so that I can check the site and the perimeter without delaying the schedule anymore.”

Solar wasn’t sure why but something swirled in her chest that felt way too suspiciously like guilt and she viciously stomped on it, preferring to revel in her anger at the annoyingly persistent bodyguard.

Naturally, Wheein often ended up trying to mediate between the two; feeling terribly guilty about the fact that Solar being blissfully unaware was making Byul's life a living hell. To be honest, along with the rest of the staff, Wheein was astounded by Solar's completely out of character behaviour towards the bodyguard. So one afternoon, after a tiresome morning of listening to Solar sniping at Byul, she had pulled her friend to one side and called her out on it, “Yongsun-unnie… this isn’t like you.”

“And it isn’t like you to go hiring people behind my back, Wheein.” Solar had bit back.

As guilt and shame returned tenfold, Wheein had simply clammed up and never brought it up again.

_Solar could be really stubborn if she wanted to._

Instead over the past few weeks, she had watched as Byul would try to do her job, Solar would inevitably throw a tantrum and Byul would find a way to continue doing her job but without Solar noticing. Wheein had gotten so good at sending the bodyguard apologetic looks, she wondered if her face would be stuck that way. Byul however, would merely shrug, find a suitable alternative and give Wheein a small reassuring smile. She didn’t once complain, lose her temper or argue back but did calmly and constantly remind Solar that she was doing her job. The other members of staff had already taken a liking to the strong and silent ex-soldier (who always appeared almost out of nowhere to help load/unload the cars, carry the heavier cases for the female staff or reminding them all to eat/drink/dress warmly/etc) but kept quiet about it around Solar for fear of her wrath. 

Then one morning, the city was hit by a rainstorm. It had rained throughout the night and continued into the morning causing some minor flooding on the roads that led to Solar arriving late to the broadcasting studio but fortunately, it was to be their venue for the whole day as she was filming an interview and a variety show in the same building. It was still pouring as they pulled up and Wheein wondered if the bodyguard had gotten caught in the rain. Just then, the door slid open and revealed said bodyguard soaked through to the bone, who reached in to grab the large umbrella they always had in the car and opened it up to shield Solar and Wheein from the rain and escort them in. Even Solar paused to eye her drenched form before allowing herself to be walked to the entrance of the building without getting wet. Wheein nodded automatically when Moonbyul quickly told her that the route was checked and safe and she distractedly looked back at Byul jogging back to the car and handing the umbrella over to the staff whilst she started grabbing the equipment to carry over since she now didn’t mind getting wet. 

Wheein and the rest of the staff felt terrible every time they went past the damp bodyguard standing guard by the dressing room door, creating a puddle where she stood. Byul had sheepishly explained to Wheein that after arriving ahead of them to perform her routine security checks, she had waited out in the rain for Solar but had forgotten her umbrella and had missed the text about them getting delayed. 

As soon as Solar was called to set, Wheein dragged Byul into the dressing room and tried to soak up as much rainwater from her and her suit using towels and asked the stylist unnie to see if she could find something for her to change into. Luckily, the stylist was able to find a light grey suit and white shirt that had been left behind by an idol boy-group that she advised was just about Byul’s size. She also offered to take Byul’s soaked suit and see if she could rescue it with dry cleaning, which Moonbyul was very grateful for. The bodyguard peeled off her jacket so that it was one less wet item to carry back as she picked up the clothes she was going to change into. Seemingly unaware of how all pairs of eyes were currently fixed on her, she strode out of the room and headed towards the toilets so that she could towel down before getting dressed.

As soon as the dressing room door clicked shut, Wheein tried to subtly check if she had been drooling.

“Wheein honey, your gay is showing~” The hair stylist oppa sing-songed in her ear.

“Shut up, Hyunwoo-oppa… you know I’m bi.” Wheein tried to will the blush off her cheeks as she swatted the giggling man away. “And don’t act like your gay ass wasn’t staring either.”

“Well, you’d have to be blind not to notice that _fantastic_ body.” He replied, running his hand through his currently pink hair.

“Exactly… god bless white shirts that go see through and cling to skin in the rain.” The stylist immediately joined in.

“Jihyun-unnie!” Wheein whisper-yelled.

“Come on, did you see those abs? And those back muscles? Oh lord, those shoulders? Seriously, that’s why she looks so good in suits… she’s like handsome female androgynous perfection.” Jihyun prattled on regardless.

Before the manager could scold her again, the makeup artist (who had gone to ask one of the studio's cleaning staff to mop up Moonbyul’s puddle before anyone slipped on it) came tumbling through the door, “Did I miss it? Damn it! Why didn’t you delay her or try to take a photo or something?”

Wheein picked up her jaw from the floor, “Um, Sook-unnie, aren’t you married?”

“Happily. Nothing wrong with a bit of eye candy, right?” Sook elbowed a grinning Hyunwoo.

“Absolutely not, sister.”

“See?”

“I’m telling your boyfriend, Hyunwoo-oppa.”

“I think he might join in, darling. She’s universally hot.”

“Amen.”

“Jihyun hun, you really need to stop making church references when gay-drooling.”

They all tried and failed not to stare when Moonbyul returned looking (unsurprisingly) stupidly good in the light grey men’s suit, somehow even better without a tie. Wheein smacked Hyunwoo when he mouthed to Sook, ‘ _like a snack_ ’, whilst the bodyguard was distracted by Jihyun fussing over her outfit.

Despite the bad weather, they were hearing reports of fans overwhelming the building security outside and mobbing a few of the celebrities who had arrived later than Solar. There was a rumour that a few persistent ones had managed to sneak past and jump the barriers, reportedly getting as far as the corridor that led to the celebrity dressing rooms. Due to this, Byul had forbidden anyone from leaving the dressing room until she had heard from the building security guards that the situation was under control. But before Solar could make any sort of complaint, a huge delivery from a local gopchang restaurant arrived - enough to feed the whole entourage twice. Wheein stepped outside the dressing room to see why Byul had allowed the food delivery after explicitly instructing them last week to throw away any food gifts and found the older girl paying the delivery driver plus a generous tip. 

“Byulyi-unnie, what’s this?”

Byul turned after waving off the delivery guys, “Well, you guys are probably getting hungry and I just heard that security are still looking for one of the fans who jumped the barrier, so it wasn’t safe to let anyone out to get lunch. I remembered seeing the gopchang place just opposite while I was waiting for you guys this morning and thought I would order some for you all.”

“Unnie...” Wheein was sure she had not met anyone quite like this.

“It’s okay.” Byul shrugged, slightly embarrassed. “Consider it my thanks for getting me into a dry suit.”

“At least come and eat with us.”

“Ah…” The bodyguard shook her head. “I’m not sure that I would be welcomed…”

Now that she had mentioned it, Wheein realised that she had never really seen the older girl eat and mentally berated herself for not noticing sooner. What was worse was the assumption that Solar would not allow her to eat with her and her staff. 

“Unnie, please let me reimburse you for the food today.” She didn’t know what courage suddenly possessed her to do so but she reached out with both hands to grab a hand nearest to her and squeezed. “Please? You basically did my job for me… I should have thought ahead and sorted out the meals but instead you did that, on top of having to deal with Solar-unnie’s attitude.”

Before Moonbyul could open her mouth to argue, Wheein switched on her “puppy-dog-eyes-superpower” to full effect… smiling happily when the bodyguard proved to be just as helpless to it as everyone else and handed over the receipt. 

“Just the bill. You don’t have to reimburse me for the tip.”

“Okay!” Wheein squeezed her slightly larger hand one more time before letting go and returned to the dressing room to place the receipt into the “Expenses” folder. She looked at the rest of the staff and Solar tucking in happily whilst joking with each other and made up her mind. 

Moonbyul was not expecting the dressing door behind her to open so soon but immediately helped the manager, who had just exited juggling a fully loaded paper plate of food, chopsticks and napkins with her phone wedged between her ear and shoulder. But as soon as the door closed, the younger girl dropped her phone and grinned cheekily at Byul, displaying a dimple she hadn’t noticed before.

“I faked a phone call so Solar-unnie wouldn’t try to stop me.” She said as she pushed the confused ex-soldier into sitting on a large windowsill right beside the dressing room. “I thought we could share this.”

She watched as a shy smile slowly spread across Byul’s face, displaying a nose wrinkle she hadn’t noticed before.

“Thank you, Wheein-ah.”

It finally hit the third week since Byul’s rocky start as the resident bodyguard and since Solar’s promotional tour had started. For the most part, Solar seemed to tolerate her presence as she tried to do her job as unnoticeably as possible. But whether it was the stress of the busy schedule, frustration at things not going smoothly, exhaustion, hunger or just everything combined, Solar finally snapped that afternoon. 

In a big way.

The infuriating bodyguard was once again trying to delay the inevitable, saying that she was not sure it was a “good idea” for Solar to be having an impromptu ‘meet and greet’ with the fans, who had waited outside the film studio since the early morning just to see her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Wheein looking like she was about to agree.

And it irked her.

Wheein was _her_ friend yet here she was, siding with the bodyguard like she had been doing since hiring her and it seemed like that they had been getting along great behind her back.

Was this what betrayal felt like? Was she jealous? Was she just frustrated at feeling restricted?

Why was this stupid bodyguard getting in her way _all the time_?

_Why was she so angry?_

“You know what? I’m done. I’m so fucking done with your behaviour!” Solar slammed her phone down onto the table in front of her and abruptly stood up, finding themselves eye to eye since she was still in her heels from her performance.

“I’m just trying to do my j-” Byul tried to de-escalate but Solar cut in.

“Oh, that same old story…” She rolled her eyes, “I’m trying to do mine, Moonbyul-ssi! I need to interact with my fans so that we continue to foster a good relationship with them because this is part of the business.”

“I underst-”

“Do you? Do you really? Because I hear the same shit from you, every _fucking_ day and I’m sick of it!” Solar’s voice and exasperation had escalated and she was pretty much full on yelling in Byul’s face now. “Honestly, it’s like you’re a robot stuck on repeat! I mean, do you even know how to act like a _normal_ person?!”

There was a sudden deafening silence.

Absolute stunned yet tense stillness.

Solar’s chest heaved and she clenched trembling fingers into fists as her whole body thrummed with adrenaline in a fight or flight response to her own outburst and slightly nervously anticipated the bodyguard’s response.

Moonbyul had gone dangerously quiet and deep dark eyes studied the idol for a few moments before she blinked as she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. The whole room collectively tried not to flinch at the unanticipated movement when she took a step back and bowed low to Solar; the full 90 degrees, before straightening up to say, “Forgive me, Solar-ssi. I had not intended to make your life so difficult and you so uncomfortable. I will not step out of line again.”

And with a swish of dark silky hair, she turned on her heel and marched out of the dressing room, closing the door gently behind her.

Byul had only managed to make it halfway down the corridor when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps and someone calling her name.

“Byulyi-unnie! Byulyi-unnie, please… wait!”

Byul stopped and turned, allowing the smaller Wheein to catch up in her heels and then to catch her breath. In the meantime, Wheein couldn’t help but notice that the bodyguard didn’t appear as angry as she would have expected her to be. Well, it was either that or Byul had a world class poker face.

“Unnie, I’m so sor-”

“She doesn’t know… does she.” The bodyguard calmly stalled her apology.

“Sorry?”

“Solar doesn’t know anything about the threats. Am I right?” Byul watched as Wheein suddenly looked away and slowly placed a comforting hand on one of her shoulders, “Wheein-ah… I’m not mad. I just need to know the truth.”

Wheein nodded but felt too ashamed to lift her head and meet Byul’s annoyingly perceptive eyes. Instead, she felt the older girl move to beside her and gently steer her down the corridor to the staff canteen.

“Come on, let’s get some drinks for everyone so that we can all calm down. You can tell me when you’re ready, okay?”

It took until Byul had paid for the drinks and was bagging them, for Wheein to finally find her voice.

“How long have you known?” She asked quietly as she helped.

“Honestly? I've had a gut feeling since day one.” Byul gave her one of her small lopsided smirks at Wheein’s shock and picked up the full plastic bag after bowing politely to the ahjumma at the till and thanking her. 

“How did you know?”

“You’re a terrible liar, Wheein.”

“Oh…” Wheein worried her bottom lip as she wondered if Solar could read her as easily as Moonbyul had. She was momentarily distracted when they stopped in front of Solar’s dressing room so that she could drop off the drinks for the others, whilst Byul took two and sat on a bench against the wall, just opposite the room. When Wheein returned and sat down beside her, she was handed a banana-milk drink with a straw already pierced through the foil top. 

_Seriously, who was this nice all the time?_

The manager took a sip before finally explaining, “You were right. Yongsun-unnie knows nothing about the threats. Eric has forbidden anyone from telling Yongsun-unnie because he claims that it will stress her out and that he cares about her mental well-being. Eric’s always been… overly protective about Solar-unnie. When he set up Nam Entertainment, every venture they tried failed miserably and he was almost bankrupt until he acquired her. After that, his little label started making a name for itself - mainly thanks to Solar-unnie but it was like his luck changed when she joined. Since then, he’s been obsessed with the image of Solar and the interests of his company; caring more about that than Yongsun-unnie, the person."

Wheein paused to take a few more sips of the sweet drink and chewed on the straw out of habit before continuing, "I know that Eric could be right, and all of these threats could be meaningless and these sasaeng fans are probably harmless but I hired you because I care about her. She’s my closest friend and I just want her to be safe, just in case, you know?”

“I know.” The older girl replied. “And I promise I will keep her safe… even if she keeps acting like a spoiled brat.” 

Wheein couldn’t but let out a giggle despite herself and shared a smile with the bodyguard.

“Thank you… I really mean it. And thank you for not losing your temper with her all this time.” She then wondered if it was too soon to ask but her curiosity won out, “But unnie… why didn’t you shout back at her? Didn’t what she said make you angry?”

Byul finished her own banana-milk drink and tossed it neatly into a bin near them before she replied, “I knew shouting back wouldn’t help or be professional at all and I had always suspected that she wasn’t aware of the threats, so… I guess I could see why she was so frustrated with me.” 

The younger girl sighed, “Unnie, I’m so sorry… it’s such a mess… And I know we joked about it but I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into her lately. She’s not normally like this - I swear…”

The bodyguard merely gave her one of her gentler smiles as she wrapped her arm around her shoulders and gave it a comforting squeeze, “Wheein-ah, you don’t have to apologise. This was completely beyond your control.”

“You… you won’t leave, right?” Wheein asked quietly as she rested her head on a strong shoulder. She really liked Moonbyul because she seemed to instinctively take care of everyone including Solar (despite her actions); just like now - going to buy drinks for everyone after being openly shouted at, and because she had not only proven herself to be incredibly sharp and perceptive but also adaptable to the circumstances. She hated the thought of having to look for a new bodyguard, knowing that they would never find another one quite like her.

A low chuckle interrupted her thoughts.

“No, I won’t leave,” Wheein was pleased to hear. “Not when I just promised to keep her safe. You hired me as her bodyguard, whether she likes it or not.”

_Well, maybe both Solar and Moonbyul were stubborn as hell then._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *borescope = fibreoptic cameras used by the military/law enforcement to eg. look into suspicious packages  
> **based on a real life events (TVXQ U-Know was the unfortunate victim)
> 
> Please leave comments/kudos - always very encouraging! Thank you!


	5. The Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minor trigger warning re: large crowds and mob mentality

The weeks following the outburst (nicknamed “Solar-gate”* by Hyunwoo) went by in a stony silence between Solar and Moonbyul. The bodyguard performed her duties as expected of her but did not interact with the idol at all, making sure to vacate the room or slip away through her entourage when she arrived. Wheein had noticed that after “Solar-gate”, Solar was more herself and a lot less snappy, as if she had just needed to let off some steam but she also wondered if this was because the lack of interaction with her bodyguard meant a lack of snide remarks. Whatever the case, they had a more subdued Solar to work with in the last few weeks. 

And this was because Solar herself had been feeling guilty and rather embarrassed about what had happened. 

Okay, she was _mortified_. 

She was a fully grown adult and she had thrown a _tantrum_ at another fully grown adult over the latter just doing her job. She still had no idea why she had been so angry and she had spewed such poison at the bodyguard. 

_It wasn’t like her at all._

Solar wanted to apologise but she wasn’t even sure how to go about it when Moonbyul was doing exactly as she had demanded and was essentially avoiding any interactions, averting her gaze immediately when their eyes met and would blend into the background, leaving just as she realised her presence. And yet the ex-soldier would seemingly appear out of nowhere right when she needed something; whether it was water, tissues or a coat - handing it to her and slipping away before Solar could even thank her, let alone apologise. Although a tiny voice in her head reminded her that she lost all courage at seeing Byul trying to evade eye contact and her completely impassive face.

But then just over two weeks of an almost unbearable stalemate later, Solar finally got a chance to look deep into Byul’s eyes. 

Solar was performing at a music programme along with several other artists and a few complaints had already been made regarding a flaw in the stage design, where the edge of the stage that led to the stairs were covered with a thick carpet, making it incredibly easy for the artists to slip. There had reportedly been a number of close calls during the dress rehearsals already but the set managers had brushed off everyone’s concerns. And anyone who knew Solar, knew that she could be clumsy as hell. 

So, perhaps it was inevitable. 

Just as Solar finished her set and was walking off waving at her fans, she missed the step and… 

She closed her eyes, fully expecting this to hurt.

But instead she landed safely into a pair of strong arms, as if they had been waiting for her.

Solar’s eyes snapped open in shock and finally met the deep dark ones she had been chasing for a fortnight. 

Her breath caught, much like the first time; not only at the proximity of them, but also the concern shimmering in them…

... before Moonbyul immediately slid it all behind her emotionless mask and carefully lowering her onto her feet from the bridal style hold she had caught her in, disappeared smoothly behind her entourage that ran over and crowded around the blushing star.

Wheein later informed her that Moonbyul had warned her about the near accidents, having witnessed one whilst doing her security checks, and when Wheein’s complaints to the set managers had fallen on deaf ears, the bodyguard had taken it upon herself to hover near the steps just in case. Eventually, it hit the news that one of the girl-group idols did end up slipping off the stage and down those steps, injuring her back.** And Solar knew, her whole company knew, that it could have been her. She had wanted to thank her _and_ apologise but once again Byul was harder to get a hold of than smoke.

The bodyguard was starting to frustrate her in a different way.

Then one afternoon less than a week later, Solar was about to leave a studio after filming yet another variety show (seriously, Eric’s schedule had been relentless) and in a scary deja vu, had wanted to stop and greet her fans, who had once again been waiting for her since the early morning. Moonbyul had already voiced her concerns to Wheein about this studio’s security being too light and too lax, and the crowd had only grown in size since the morning. 

As if sensing the brewing refusal, Solar reluctantly turned to her manager and to the bodyguard standing behind her and stiffly reminded them that this was part of her job.

It was all too familiar and raw for comfort.

And perhaps that was why, against everyone’s better judgement, Solar was allowed to ‘meet and greet’ her fans en route to the car.

To Moonbyul, the crowd seemed to be in particularly high spirits that day and kept pushing each other against the flimsy barriers. She spotted a small, likely female, fan in a plastic white bunny mask, who seemed to be burrowing her way through the crowd and egging the other fans on, stirring them into a frenzy. And her gut instinct told her that something, she didn’t know what, but _something_ was about to happen.

Her gut instinct had never failed her.

Byul moved quickly towards Wheein and whispered into her ear to pull Solar back. Wheein sensed the urgency in her tone and immediately started to walk towards her.

But it was too late.

Like a rising tide, the crowd escalated into a mob and pressed against the already straining barriers.

“Solar! We love you!”

“Oh my god, Solar-ssi! Over here!”

“Marry me, Solar!”

“Solar-unnie! You’re the best! I love you!”

_CRASH!_

And just like that, the barriers were pushed over and trampled on, as the fans crowded around Solar excitedly whilst the studio security guards, who had been standing right by said barriers, half heartedly tried to push them back. But to no avail.

Wheein watched helplessly and in horror as Solar was swarmed by the throng and cried out as she was pushed over; seemingly twisting her ankle in her heels as she went down. Before she could descend into full panic, she was grabbed by her shoulders and found herself looking up into the bodyguard’s sharp intelligent eyes, “Take the staff and get the cars ready.”

And with that Moonbyul thundered in.

She grabbed a fire extinguisher along the way and unpinning it, used the powerful foam spray to push the mob back enough to be able to make her way through to the idol. 

Solar was curled up on the ground, sobbing silently and clutching at her torn clothes.

The horde of fans, in a desperate attempt to touch their star, began tearing at her clothes and had even pulled off her rings, bracelets and heels. 

Moonbyul took in the tears, torn clothes and rapidly swelling ankle.

_CLANG!_

The bodyguard slammed the large metal fire extinguisher to the ground, making the crowd collectively flinch and take a small step back. Ripping off her jacket as she crouched down, she immediately covered Solar in it before whispering to her softly that she is going to pick her up. At a tentative nod, she picked her up gingerly, bridal style. Just as Moonbyul stood and readjusted her hold, with Solar naturally curling into her chest, she caught sight of the small bunny mask girl skulking behind some of the stunned fans. Then without a warning, she pushed through them. Byul quickly turned to shield Solar from whatever this strange girl wanted and felt a sudden sharp pain in her back but paid it no attention as she hurried towards their two cars, in one of which, Wheein was waiting with the door still open. 

Moonbyul gently deposited Solar into her seat and stepping in after her, slid the door shut behind her and slapped the driver’s seat to get them to start driving. She raised her deep voice above the anxious chatter to tell Driver Lee to take them to RVSM headquarters building, and have the other car drive back to Nam Entertainment. Now that all the occupants in the car were listening to her, she explained in her normal tone, “Solar-ssi needs medical attention where paparazzi and fans won't be all over her. Hopefully, most of them will follow the car heading towards your company but any that do follow us won’t be able to get past our security at the gates. We have a fully equipped medical centre inside RVSM - she’ll be safe and well looked after.” 

As Wheein called Sook, who was sitting in the other car with one of the junior managers driving it, Moonbyul grabbed her backpack that was luckily next to her and pulled out an ice pack. In her hurry to get the car moving, she had ended up squatting down in front of Solar’s seat after lowering her down into it, and was facing the idol with her back to the front seat. She applied the now cracked ice pack onto the swollen ankle and looked up to see Solar curled in on herself, staring into space with panic and tears still in her eyes. Softening her husky tone as much as possible, Byul gently placed a warm hand on Solar’s knee to get her attention whilst the other held the ice pack.

_She was trembling._

“Solar-ssi? Look at me. Focus on me. You’re safe now, okay? You’re safe. We’ve got you.” 

Solar slowly calmed as she stared into Moonbyul's eyes, with her bodyguard repeating that she was safe over and over again. Once able, she found herself reaching for her bodyguard’s hand on her knee and holding it tight. Then she heard quietly spoken words she didn’t know she needed to hear.

“It’s not your fault, Solar-ssi. Please remember that.”

Solar felt safe and protected when Moonbyul carried her up and into RVSM’s medical centre. She almost panicked when Byul sat her down on the nearest hospital bed and pulled away but Wheein quickly took over, holding her hand tightly as the bodyguard disappeared just as she had been doing the last few weeks. Solar took comfort from her closest friend and manager, and from the light (oddly comforting) scent coming from Byul’s jacket that she was still covered in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *spin term "Watergate Scandal"  
> **Solar IRL fell off a step due to very similar circumstances I think at SBS Gayo Daejun, the same one where poor Red Velvet Wendy was badly injured
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading! Comments/kudos always welcomed.


	6. The Incident continued

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: blood, wound stitching, bad language

Moonbyul gave a grateful nod in greeting to Dr Wendy Son, RVSM’s resident doctor, as she passed by her at the entrance of the medical centre. Knowing that Solar was in good hands, Byul instead strode down the corridor and the office of one Kang Seulgi: one of her oldest and closest friends from the military, who was not only a good soldier but also a tech whizz and whose fiance (a certain Bae Irene) left her family’s corporation to set up RVSM with her. After their basic military training together, Byul went onto train with the special forces whilst Seulgi was snapped up by their superiors in the Military Intelligence and Engineers divisions as she had proven to be a natural with computer software and coding. Seulgi’s military background and experience with advanced tech, and Irene’s executive and business savvy brain led to the creation of the small but efficient RVSM, that was partially helped when they recruited Moonbyul quite early on; her special forces experience and her brief stint with the Secret Services bringing a whole new set of marketable desirable skills.

“Hey, Seulgi.” 

Seulgi’s head snapped up from the three computer screens before her and surprise morphed into a big goofy grin, “Unnie! I missed you!”

And like the teddy bear she was, she stuck out both arms and legs as if asking for a full bodied hug. Byul chuckled as she moved in from the doorway to go stand next to the seated Seulgi and avoiding the limbs, playfully messed up the younger girl’s hair. She glanced at the computer screens that Seulgi had been staring intensely at when she had walked in earlier and said, “Irene-unnie will not be pleased you were playing Counter-Strike at work again, Seulgi-ah…”

Seulgi merely winked as she smoothed down the hair that Byul had ruffled as she replied, “But you won’t tell her, so she will never know! Bros before hoes, you know?”

“She’ll kill you if she hears you say that.”

“I know, so don’t tell her that either!”

The stupid banter between them had been present almost throughout their friendship and the pair giggled at each other before Seulgi brought them back to business.

“So, I know you’re not just here because you missed your best friend. How can I help?”

Moonbyul gave Seulgi a quick summary of the incident and asked her to pull up all footage related to it. She watched (in slight awe as she often did) as Seulgi’s fingers flew across the keyboard and within minutes, she had videos from social media, news outlets and even CCTV (Byul was sure that was not necessarily accessed the legal way, but as always, she would never tell) pulled up onto her three screens.

The CCTV footage from a nearby lamp-post actually showed them the most, as it high above and behind the crowd with the camera pointed down towards the entrance to the studio, essentially giving them full view of the fans and Solar. They could clearly see the small bunny mask girl inciting and encouraging the fans or actively pushing them into the barrier but then they caught sight of another bunny mask wearing fan (likely male, judging by the size and build) standing at the back of the crowd, doing exactly the same. Due to the sheer number of people, Byul had not been able to see him. 

This concerned her. “So their stalker isn’t just one person.”

Seulgi nodded, looking equally disturbed, “Yeah, they may actually be a group of sasaeng fans.” 

Just then Seulgi saw Moonbyul jumping in with the fire extinguisher and was silently proud of how her friend always found a solution to anything, thinking fast on her feet before anyone could even react let alone act. They continued watching as Byul picked up Solar and turned away, just as the smaller bunny mask surged forward suddenly, catching up to bodyguard before she was fully clear of the stunned crowd with Solar in her arms. Seulgi frowned as this weird fan brushed past Byul, turned and calmly walked towards the taller bunny mask before leaving as if nothing had happened; because she could see the spreading patch of crimson on Moonbyul's white shirt as she moved away from the camera. Leaning back in her chair, Seulgi confirmed with her own eyes what she had just witnessed and glanced at the torn white shirt now stained with blood and open cut on her friend's back. 

“Unnie… your back’s still bleeding.”

“Hmm…? I’ll be fine.” Byul shrugged as she focused on scrolling through the footage, seeing if she could spot any more bunny masks in the crowd. “I’m not sure what these bunny mask sasaengs want. I don’t know if that knife attack was actually meant for me or meant for Solar-ssi. I also don’t understand why the CEO keeps shutting down any Police investigations and not telling her. It all doesn’t make sense.”

She straightened up and ran a frustrated hand through her hair, “Can I get you to open a file on this, Seulgi-ah? Try to trace the creepy messages they leave in the fan-cafe and other social media sites and see if we can link it to these bunny masks. There was also some sort of IED that failed to go off that might be sitting in Police Evidence somewhere - can you get all that data for me, please?”

Seulgi nodded distractedly, “I can do all of that, unnie, but please can you go and see Wendy after she is done with Solar-ssi?”

Byul looked down and seeing the concern in her friend’s face, she relented. “I’ll go see Wendy later. And besides,” she added jokingly, “this is nothing compared to some of the things I’ve lived through, right? So I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

As she walked out of the office, Seulgi let out a sigh and muttered sadly to her retreating back, “That doesn’t make me feel better… You’ve been through enough already, unnie, this was meant to be an easy assignment.”

_ It was meant to be an easy assignment. _

Except it wasn’t and Byul wasn’t given any reprieve as she walked back into the medical centre to find that CEO Eric had just arrived and was flapping around in a frantic panic. As soon as his eyes fell on her, he immediately crowded into her personal space and used his height to full advantage.

“ _ You _ ! You had one job!  _ One job _ ! You were meant to protect her!” He jabbed her chest with a pointed finger a few times as he continued screaming in Byul’s face, “I should have you fired for your incompetence! What the  _ fuck _ were you doing instead of protecting her?!”

As with train wrecks, everyone within earshot couldn’t help but watch. 

Moonbyul merely clenched her jaw and taking a step back, stood to attention as if she was still in the military, replied with a curt and quiet, “I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

There was a brief silence as the now red-faced man in front of her took in a deep breath, the vein in his neck bulging as he prepared to scream again.

“Eric.” Solar’s melodious voice sharply cut across, immediately deflating him. She looked and sounded a lot better than she had earlier. “Moonbyul-ssi actually tried to warn me against greeting the fans today but I’m the one who refused to listen. And when all hell broke loose, she saved me immediately while the other security staff at the studio just stood there. So you should be thanking her really. Because without her, it could have been much worse.”

“Of course Solar, my darling.” Eric immediately switched to being sweet and caring as he flitted over to her side. “As long as you felt you were protected, I have no problem. Now, what can I get you? Water? Tea?”

Not realising that his presence was a major source of discomfort, he continued to cluck over Solar until the whole room was relieved when his phone rang and he quickly moved outside to answer it. In the meantime, Moonbyul glanced down at Solar's ankle and was relieved to see that it was in bandages rather than a cast, which meant that no bones were broken. She looked up and found herself meeting equally surprised eyes, not realising that Solar had been looking at her too. And like in the car, they held each other’s gaze carefully.

“Omo, Byulyi-unnie!” They were interrupted by a gasp from Wheein who had approached Byul to check on her. “What happened to your back?”

Wendy was immediately by her side before Moonbyul could react and turned her around, causing further gasps from the others. The bodyguard recoiled at all the attention that was suddenly directed at her and started backing away towards the door, but before she could bolt, Wendy had grabbed her wrist and was dragging her to a smaller clinical area next door.

“Unnie, were you actually planning to come and see me at some point?” Wendy asked as she sat her down, cut open the ruined shirt and started cleaning the cut on her lower back. “Or were you planning to bleed out first?” 

“It really isn’t that bad, Wendy. And yes, actually, I was going to ask you to take a look at it.” Byul replied tiredly.

“Was that before or after Seulgi guilt-tripped your stupid ass into it?”   
“...”

“See?”

However, a peeved Doctor Son found that Byul had been right - the wound was more of a slash than a stab and looked a lot worse than it was due to the length of it but it was luckily shallow and she focused on stitching it up.

“It might be helpful for you to know… Given how clean the wound edges are and how there isn’t much depth, I’d say it could only have been made with a small sharp blade. Maybe like a razor blade or a scalpel.” Wendy commented as she worked.

The older girl nodded gingerly, trying not to move too much, “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” 

“You’re welcome. And hold on, one second…” Byul heard the snipping of scissors and clattering of metal instruments in a tray. “There we go, nine beautiful stitches! You know the rules and I expect you here next week so I can take a look before taking them out. You got that?”

Wendy received a lazy salute.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. And your spare shirts are in the closet, as always. Seriously, unnie, just move in. Actually, don’t. You’re a headache.” 

Byul chuckled as she hopped down from the examination table and walked over to the closet. “Thank you, as always, Wendy.

Meanwhile, Solar along with Wheein and the other members of staff who had come with her were left stunned.

“How… How did we not see that giant bloody patch on her back?” Jihyun’s horrified whisper was the first to break the silence that followed after the bodyguard was dragged out of the door. “She was wearing a bright white shirt, for Christ’s sake.”

“I don’t know… maybe we were just so focused on what happened to Yongsun, it didn’t even register.” Hyunwoo added.

“She didn’t even show any signs that she was in pain…” Solar mumbled so quietly that Wheein almost missed it as she returned to sit on the chair next to her. The conversation continued around them as she looked at her friend and heart clenched at the sight of the normally confident girl curled up, unusually quiet and subdued. Immediately sitting down, she took Solar’s hand again and gave it a comforting squeeze and tried not to show relief at feeling the older girl squeeze strongly back.

“It’s not your fault you know, unnie.”

“But it is… I just should have listened, insteading of behaving like a diva.” Solar let out a humourless snort, “But Moonbyul-ssi said the same thing as you.”

“Well, you know. Great minds think alike and all that.”

“More like, two fools share one thought.”

“I am totally telling Byulyi you called her a fool.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“Wouldn’t.”

“Would.”

"Wouldn't!"

"Would!"

“Hotel?”

“Trivago!”

The pair suddenly broke out into hysterical giggles at their own nonsense. Wheein was ridiculously glad that her close friend seemed to be handling the while incident pretty well (the unfortunate arrival of Eric may have had a hand in Solar rapidly pulling herself together so that she was not vulnerable in his presence) and Solar was ridiculously grateful for her close friend and manager trying and succeeding in making her feel better.

Their giggles turned the attention of their staff towards them and Wheein used the opportunity to quickly hold a briefing regarding Solar’s upcoming schedules, even connecting with the rest of the entourage sitting back at the company by FaceTiming them. During their mini-meeting, Eric returned after his phone call to butt in and insist that he wanted it clear to the producers (of all the shows Solar was booked to attend) that the incident was a banned topic and that the ankle injury was to be downplayed as much as possible. He didn’t want the fans to feel bad and if they were anti-fans, then he didn't want them to have the satisfaction of knowing that they had succeeded in making any change to the idol’s life. He then quickly bid his farewells as he reportedly had an appointment to get to. 

They were all relieved to find that Solar’s next schedule was to start late afternoon the next day (so they could all get a lie-in after a demanding day) and that since the OST was a ballad, her ankle injury could easily be disguised with a muted seated performance and hidden behind stage props or smoke. The other appearances planned for the rest of the week were seated radio or panel shows, again making it easy to not draw attention to the injury. Wheein advised the PR Manager to make sure that any statement released from the company should be carefully worded, encouraging fans to “take extra care” at any events to prevent injuries and to have it checked by both Eric and herself before posting. 

Solar watched quietly as the meeting concluded and, not for the first time, thought to herself that Wheein acted more like a CEO than Eric sometimes; with her swift actions and efficiency in managing damage control. 

All thoughts were derailed, however, by a certain Moonbyul re-entering the medical centre. 

The bodyguard was in a fresh white shirt, as always neatly tucked into her black slacks with her tie tucked into one of the pockets, and walked in whilst doing up her sleeve button.

Solar vaguely noticed that she was not the only one staring.

Seriously, people did up their buttons all the time.

_ But how the hell did she make it look so cool? _

The idol was almost startled when Wheein got up from her seat and approached the ex-soldier to shyly ask if she was okay. Solar watched as the normally cold serious face slowly softened into a small gentle smile to reassure the resident puppy, and was completely taken aback first at how warm it was and second at how she had never noticed before.

Then she guiltily remembered.

She had never given Moonbyul any reason to smile for the past 6 weeks or so.

_ God, she was officially an asshole _ . 

After getting a quick update about the contents of the mini-meeting, Moonbyul walked over to Solar, who immediately hid all her emotions behind the neutral expression she often used in variety shows when she wasn’t sure how she was expected to react. 

“Are you okay, Solar-ssi?”

“I’m okay, thanks to you, Moonbyul-ssi.”

Solar almost wanted to wince at her all too polite response to the woman who had rescued her from being mauled by a mob and got her back cut open for her troubles.

Before she could try and rescue the moment, Byul gave her a quick nod and bent down to pick her up.

And Solar flailed.

“W-Wai-!”

“Byulyi-unnie! What are you doing?”

“What about your back?!”

“Didn’t you just get stitched back together?!”

Luckily for Solar, everybody in the room all started yelling at the same time, so she did not seem like she was overreacting.

And her blush was missed by everyone but herself. 

Byul blinked in surprise at the anxious reactions and explained calmly, “My back is fine - it was a shallow cut and now it’s closed. Besides, there are stairs after the elevator that lead down to the carpark, so the crutches are going to be a problem there anyway.”

When she was met by silence, the bodyguard huffed, “Look, I carried her here fine with my back cut open, so I think I’ll be fine carrying her back.”

Before anyone could argue, she bent down and scooped Solar up in a bridal style hold with intimidating ease. The idol yelped in surprise but found her arms automatically wrapping around strong shoulders and a warmth spreading across her cheeks again.

As she was carried out of the medical centre, Wendy approached and paused as she glanced at the pair, before handing Solar an ice pack since Moonbyul’s hands were full. At Solar’s questioning glance, Moonbyul quietly informed her, “It’s to replace the one I used from my backpack earlier.” 

This immediately brought back memories of the car journey to RVSM and then back to the unfortunate incident.

But she was surprised to find that the overwhelming sensation was how safe and calmed she felt in the bodyguard’s presence and in her arms. Letting out a small sigh, she slowly relaxed and let herself settle into the warmth of another, deciding to indulge in the safety and comfort they provided; wondering when it was the last time she allowed herself to let down her guard and be held like this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does everyone know the Trivago ad? Or is it just me?  
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Comments/Kudos always appreciated :)  
> Update: Wendy's pic added to character profiles in Chapter 1
> 
> PS. Next update may be a day late but will try to update few times a week...


	7. Managing the manager

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: description of a mild panic/anxiety attack

When Driver Lee pulled up outside Solar’s building, Moonbyul and Wheein hopped out to escort her up to her flat. Byul picked up Solar again (the idol surprisingly not making any attempt to stop her this time) as Wheein reassured the kind older gentleman that they would be fine to get a taxi if needed and urged the driver to go home.

It had been a long day for all of them. 

“Byulyi-unnie, you should have let me take your bag as well!” Wheein scolded as she caught up to the bodyguard walking up the steps that led to Solar’s apartment block. She was wearing her backpack as well as carrying Solar, whilst Wheein held Solar’s bag and her own as well as the idol’s crutches.

“It’s fine, Wheein-ah. And besides,” Byul’s face suddenly broke out into a lopsided smirk, “if you wore my backpack, it would scrape along the ground with your height…”

Solar let out an unladylike snort of amusement before she could stop herself, not only at the quip about Wheein’s miniature size but also at her completely gobsmacked expression.

“Unnie!” The resident puppy yelped as she tried to glare but the smile growing on her face ruined it. 

One elevator ride later, Wheein let them into Solar’s apartment and Byul carried Solar all the way through to her bedroom and at her request, lowered her into a chair at the dressing table before leaving the room quickly to give her her privacy. 

So quickly that, once again, Solar did not get a chance to thank the bodyguard.

Well, that and the painkillers that Wendy had given her earlier had really kicked in and she felt like her brain was lagging behind by a few seconds.

Wheein helped her get ready for bed, helping her change out of Byul’s jacket (that she had been wearing the whole time) and the torn clothes (which were tossed immediately into a trash bag without a second glance by either of them) into pajamas before helping her to the bathroom so that she could do her nightly routine. 

By the time Wheein was tucking her into bed, Solar could barely keep her eyes open but she grabbed the younger girl’s hand and tugged her gently until she sat perched on the edge of her bed. 

“Thank you, Wheein-ah… for everything today. I only got through it because of you.” Solar’s heart swelled with affection for her close friend when she received one of her sweet smiles and her trademark dimple appeared. “And, I’ll admit it. I was wrong and you were right… I did need a bodyguard. I’m sorry about how I reacted before.” 

To her surprise, Wheein didn’t grin and gloat like she would have done at Solar admitting she was wrong - Solar was rarely in the wrong and even when she was, her pride usually stopped her from admitting it. But her tired mind didn’t quite catch the slightly sad look that appeared on the younger girl’s face instead. 

“I… I’m just glad you’re okay, Yongsun-unnie… I really am.” Wheein looked down at their joined hands when Solar gave hers a small squeeze. “Anyway, sleep. We can talk more later. Just text me when you wake up so that we can bring you some food, okay? We're going to stay over tonight.”

Solar sleepily nodded and drifted off to sleep almost immediately as Wheein crept out of the room, switching off all the lights and closing the door behind her.

Wheein entered the living room with Moonbyul’s jacket in her hands and found her by the front door, quietly conversing with her colleague about something on the phone. She hung back around the kitchen island of the open plan living room-kitchen but could not help but catch a few lowly spoken words.

“Do you think you can find out which department is holding the evidence on the failed IED*? We know they closed the case but I asked you to open one at ours, didn’t I? Yes, you rascal, I will owe you one. Thanks, Seulgi. Yeah, you too. Bye.” 

Moonbyul hung up and turned to find Wheein looking right at her. 

“Unnie… I-I didn’t mean to but I overheard… Wh-What are you doing?“ 

Byul shifted a little uncomfortably under the questioning gaze and running her hand through her hair to prevent herself from fidgeting, she explained, “I know your CEO shut down all the investigations but something didn’t feel right… so, I started looking into it with one of my bosses at RVSM. I’m sorry if I stepped out of line but I promised to protect Solar-ssi and this might help. We’ll be as discreet as we can.”

Instead of getting angry, Wheein’s whole body seemed to relax and looked part relieved and part exasperated. “I’ve been telling Eric for months… oh god, you have no idea how vindicated I feel, hearing you say that something’s not right. I’ve been thinking that the stalker’s threats, the failed explosive and even what happened today are all connected.”

Byul ushered Wheein onto the stools at the kitchen island and placing down a glass of water in front of her, asked her to tell her everything from the beginning. 

And she did; words pouring out of her now that the dam was broken, feeling oddly happy at the fact that she could finally speak about it freely without being shut down, and the bodyguard jotted down relevant information into her little black notepad.

When she was done, Wheein took a few gulps of water and watched as Byul seemed to be thinking deeply as she flipped through the pages in front of her.

“I know it’s too soon but have you found anything yet?” 

To her surprise, Byul had and listened intently as the older girl explained what she had seen on the CCTV camera with the bunny mask weirdos and how she suspected that this was all the work of a group rather than one individual. 

“But their motives, their backgrounds, their MO… nothing’s clear right now but I was hoping evidence gathered from the failed IED would shed some light on things.”

Wheein nodded and watched as the bodyguard hopped off her stool with a subtle grimace to get more water for herself . She couldn’t help but think about how dangerous it could have been for her closest friend if it hadn’t been for Moonbyul. 

Wheein had been fresh out of art school with no clear career path and Yongsun-unnie had reached out to her, all but begging her to be her manager. She didn’t think she was qualified at all but Yongsun had insisted, saying that she recalled how organised Wheein had been during their time at the same college and in the same performing arts club, and how she just needed a friend. When she had the displeasure of finally meeting Eric, she had understood why Solar wanted to bring in her own manager. Sure the guy was a shrewd businessman and seemed charming enough but in a snake-like manner and always seemed to be scheming; keen to do the least amount of work but see the most benefit and then get all the credit for it. At the beginning, it had sometimes felt like they were in some sort of historical drama caught up in palace intrigue, as there was so much plotting, counter-plotting, manipulations and even spying.

Over time, Wheein and Solar had meticulously weeded out the bad eggs Eric had planted in her entourage and recruited their own staff until Solar’s closest circle were her most trusted staff, rather than Eric’s and he could only agree to the employee changes when Solar turned her charm up to greater than 9000.

Then suddenly, it all caught up. 

The anxiety she had been holding in and holding alone.

The terror of finding out that there had been a bomb that could have gone off in the room they had all been sitting and laughing in.

The fear that had washed over her as Solar was pushed down and swallowed up by the crowd.

The stress of having to manage all this and keep it from her closest friend. 

Wheein suddenly felt like she was being submerged; the walls were closing in and she struggled to take a breath in.

_Fresh air. She needed fresh air._

She tried to hurriedly jump down from the stool she was sitting on but her arms and legs felt like lead, they wouldn’t obey. She only succeeded in jerkily knocking the glass off the counter-top and send it flying onto the kitchen tiles; smashing it to pieces.

The sound of breaking glass pierced through her ears and only made her panic worse.

She felt herself slowly slide off the stool and sink to the floor. She desperately wanted to regain control and told herself to ground herself with the objects around her.

_But this wasn’t her house. There was nothing familiar._

A scream bubbled in her throat… 

Suddenly, Moonbyul was kneeling in front of her: telling her to focus on her eyes, the touch of her hands on hers and the sound of her voice. When she complied, she heard the same husky voice telling her to breathe with her, slowing down her short sharp breaths. 

Slowly but surely, the fog cleared from her eyes and the flat didn’t feel like a shoebox anymore. She was still shaking but felt more in control of her emotions and her limbs. She weakly squeezed Moonbyul’s hands undirected, and the older girl took the hint to stop her instructions and pulled back slightly, taking her hands with her. Instead she used them to wipe away tears with the soft pad of her thumb; tears that Wheein had not realised had fallen. 

“Hey…” Byul asked gently, “Would you like to go for some fresh air?” 

Wheein shook her head.

“Do you want a few moments alone?”

Wheein shook her head again.

“Do you… want a hug?” 

Wheein whimpered as she was able to choke out, “...hug.” 

The bodyguard immediately moved from her kneeling position to a fully seated one, with her back against the kitchen island. She gently pulled Wheein into her front, so that the younger girl was sitting curled up between her knees leaning sideways into her chest with her head nestled in the crook of her neck; her ear over a calming slow and steady heartbeat.

There was a comfortable silence. 

Moonbyul just held her and giving her all the time she needed, until Wheein finally managed to find her voice.

“How are you so good at this?” She asked quietly if a little hoarsely, “I saw you calm Yongsun-unnie in the car too.”

There was a small movement that felt like a shrug as Byul replied, “I wouldn’t say I’m good at it… I have a friend who used to get anxiety attacks a lot when we were at school together. I guess I just tried to find ways to help.”

Wheein nodded and suddenly felt the need to explain, “I haven’t had one in a long time… I can normally prevent them before they happen… but i-it’s been hard, these last few m-months I mean-”

“Wheein-ah, you don't have to explain. I hope you know that you’ve been so strong and this is a _huge_ burden you’ve been carrying alone…” Byul gently interrupted and tightened her arms around her for a moment, “But you have me now, okay? So if you ever need a distraction, a shoulder to cry on or just to lean on… I’ll be here.”

“Thank you, Byulyi-unnie…” Wheein mumbled and snuggled closer into the warmth, trying to ignore a blush that appeared. Then out of curiosity, and because she felt like she could do with a distraction, she asked, “Can I ask how your friend is now?”

The bodyguard’s body shook slightly as she chuckled fondly, “The little kitten I knew, has grown into a lion.”*

“You seem… close.” 

“We… well, we were. I just haven’t been good at keeping in contact, I guess.”

Wheein heard the slightly sad undertone to the reply and could tell that there was a story behind it that they could share another time, so instead she asked, “Can you tell me what she’s like?”

There was a pause. And then… 

“...fatal.”

Wheein couldn’t help herself as loud snort escaped her and pulled back to look at Byul’s face before falling about laughing at the sheepish grin she found there. 

“Seriously? Fatal? Who describes someone as fatal?”

“It’s true! I mean, she looks like a proper ‘femme fatale’ but really, deep down, she’s just a little softie. And that combination is-”

“Fatal?” Wheein finished for her.

“Now do you see?”

Wheein nodded as settled back into strong warm arms. “She sounds lovely. I would love to meet her sometime.”

“I hope one day you will.”

They fell back into a comfortable silence for a few moments until Wheein snapped up as if she had been electrocuted, startling Byul.

“Wheein-ah, wh-”

“Unnie! Oh my god! Your back! Is your back… why are you laughing?”

The chuckling bodyguard didn’t reply and Wheein couldn’t help giggling with her, thinking that it was cute that the older girl’s nose wrinkled when she laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *IED = Improvised Explosive Device  
> **spin on on Korean metaphor about someone timid growing into a dragon
> 
> Can you guess who Byul's friend is? ;)
> 
> Aaaaand did anyone catch the Dragonball Z reference about "greater than 9000"? XD
> 
> I promise you this is not a Wheebyul fanfic lol - I'm just soft for Wheebyul's interactions... Byul seems to have the biggest soft spot for Wheein IRL (although who wouldn't, amirite?) and cares for her in a way that really shows sometimes. 
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to leave comments/kudos as they are always welcomed!  
> Next chapter will be short so will probably be up sooner but the chapter after that may be a day or so late...  
> See y'all soon!


	8. The Apology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It finally happens, long overdue...

Solar woke up to the smell of coffee. 

The painkillers had really taken her out. 

‘ _ Thank you for the horse tranquilisers, Dr Son. _ ’

She groggily checked the time on her phone with one eye still closed. It was 0930 and whilst not that late for many people’s standards, it was a much welcomed and long overdue lie-in compared to her normal hours. After stretching languidly and testing her injured ankle with a few movements, felt strong enough to use the crutches and go to the bathroom to do her morning routine. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun and after washing her face, kept it bare as she knew that Wheein had likely stayed over last night and wouldn’t care about her fresh face.

‘ _ Wheein… _ ‘

Unbeknownst to Wheein, Solar had not yet fallen into a deep sleep and at the sound of smashing glass and the younger girl’s whimpering, Solar had shot out of bed and hopped over to her bedroom door; wondering who or what was trying to harm her friend. 

But she had stopped short at the sight of Wheein clearly in the middle of a panic attack with Moonbyul pulling her through it. She was not close enough to be able to hear what was said between them but as she watched Wheein curl up against Byul, she had almost felt jealous at how the latter had broken through Wheein’s barriers almost effortlessly within weeks when it took others years. 

It also broke her heart to know that Wheein was still having these attacks and guilt had been eating her since then, as she wondered how much of her career had made her neglect her closest friend. She had hopped back to bed and as she quickly slipped back into slumber, had wondered why she felt happy yet a little jealous that Wheein had another person she could depend on now. 

Solar hobbled out into the living room in her crutches, calling for Wheein… only to find the giggling girl standing by the kitchen island, being handed a takeout coffee by a grinning Moonbyul. 

_ ‘Why is  _ she _ here? Oh god. My face! And my hair!’  _ Solar glanced down at Ryan the Bear printed all over her clothing. _ ‘And why do I only own childish pyjamas?’ _

“Oh, Yongsun-unnie!” Wheein hurriedly set down her cardboard cup and hurried over to her as the bodyguard quietly slipped away into the kitchen area. “Why didn’t you text me?”

Wheein helped her to the sofa, although Solar was managing quite well with the crutches, and once seated, Solar whispered to her, “Why is Moonbyul-ssi here so early?”

Her manager looked confused, “I thought I mentioned last night that we would both be staying over? Well, anyway, I took the guest room like always because Byulyi-unnie insisted that she was fine with the sofa even with her back.”

Solar blinked. “Why?”

“Obviously I stayed because I was worried about you and Byulyi-unnie stayed to…” Solar was mildly taken by surprise when a small blush appeared on Wheein’s cheeks, “...take care of us both, I guess.”

When Solar nodded dumbly, a little stunned, Wheein excitedly jumped up from the sofa to grab one of the takeout coffees from the kitchen island and bring it over.

“Byulyi-unnie woke up early but couldn’t figure out your fancy coffee machine, so she went out and bought us all coffee.” She then leaned closer to add unnecessarily, “And she got your bougie order right without even asking.”

“I-It’s not bougie…” Solar found her voice again at her friend insulting her Caramel Macchiato with a double vanilla pump and extra shot. “It’s tasteful.”

Wheein chuckled at the huffing idol, “Sure, sure. Anyway, rest, unnie. I’m going to make us all brunch… and I promise to try and not burn down your kitchen this time.”

She was referring to the time she had tried and failed to bake a cake, for some reason in Solar’s kitchen instead of her own.

Solar tried to watch morning TV with her much appreciated coffee but was distracted as she kept shooting glances over to the kitchen to see Moonbyul and Wheein clearly much closer after the events of last night. Byul was teasing Wheein again by jokingly backseat driving about how to fry the eggs and the resident-puppy whined back at her noisily but was smiling as she swatted the laughing bodyguard with the spatula in her hand. 

Once again, Solar felt that tiny little grumble of jealousy rear its ugly head before she could help herself she watched them. 

Then their eyes met.

Solar wondered if she would get whiplash from how quickly her head snapped back towards the TV after her eyes accidentally found the bodyguard’s. She tried not to flinch when she felt the sofa cushions dip as Moonbyul came over and sat down next to her.

“How are you feeling, Solar-ssi?”

“Much better now, thank you.” Solar looked everywhere but the woman sitting next to her.

“That’s good.” 

There was a terribly awkward silence that followed.

Byul then cleared her throat and made a move to rise but a hand shot out and grabbed her by her wrist, keeping her seated. 

Solar had been inwardly berating herself during the stilted silence and almost panicked when Byul moved to leave, knowing that she would never get a chance like this again.

(Her mind randomly noted how slim the wrist was, wondering how on earth someone this slim was so strong).

“Moonbyul-ssi, I… um… Thank you. Thank you for what you did for me yesterday. And for all you’ve done so far… I know I’ve been, well, I behaved terribly towards you and I’m really truly sorry for that. I don’t really have much of an excuse for my poor behaviour but… but if you’ll let me, I would like the chance to make it up to you for the rest of your employment with us. I promise I’ll be better and allow you to do your job.” It was like the floodgates had opened and all of the words she had rehearsed in her head the past few weeks came tumbling out. 

Her bodyguard’s face slowly broke into a soft smile, making Solar feel strangely warm inside, as she replied, “Then I will continue to try and adapt our protocols, so that we can meet your needs to interact with your fans, Solar-ssi.”

“Y-Yongsun…”

“Sorry?”

The idol’s cheeks were inflamed, “I wouldn’t mind if you called me by actual name… I think I owe you that after six weeks of tolerating me.”

“Ah… well, I heard I am younger than you so, it’s only fair that you also drop the honorifics, Yongsun-ssi.”

Yongsun shyly nodded but then her mind picked up an odd detail, “What did you mean you ‘heard you were younger’?” To her surprise, she found Byul looking down sheepishly and running a hand through her dark locks (making Yongsun’s mind curiously blank for a brief moment).

“I thought you were younger when we first met, Yongsun-ssi…” The bodyguard mumbled so quietly that Yongsun had to lean in to hear what was said, “Because you have such a pretty dong-an*…” 

“...”

‘ _ What the hell? So… so greasy…’ _

But it didn’t stop Solar from blushing a sunset on the sofa, nor did it stop the slightly embarrassed smile that crept onto her face.

“Byulyi-unnie! Could you come and help me carry the plates over, please?”

“Sure.” Byul called over her shoulder. Then with a grin that could only be described as a cross between cheeky and greasy, she asked, “Yongsun-ssi… may I have my wrist back please?”

Solar did not know that she could have a full body blush until that moment as she watched Byul gently retract her wrist from her hand, having not realised she had been holding onto it  _ the entire time _ . 

But somehow… just somehow, her bodyguard’s nose wrinkle as she grinned made it all worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dong-an = youthful looking face
> 
> Here it is! Short chapter, so early as promised...  
> Next chapter will probably arrive on Sunday/Monday!
> 
> Thank you for reading and thank you for comments/kudos - they always keep one going!


End file.
